Irish premier warns May on her DUP deal, suggesting it could endanger peace

Posted on June 12, 2017

Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny has warned the leader of the British Conservative party, Prime Minister Theresa May, about her deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), suggesting it could endanger peace.

Kenny said in a tweet on Sunday that he had talked to the British premier and warned him that the deal could imperil the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).

May reached an outline agreement with the DUP to form an alliance that would allow her to remain in power after the Tory’s weak performance in Thursday’s general elections.

The DUP is currently engaged in a negotiations after the collapse of the power-sharing administration that runs the Northern Ireland Executive.

May’s deal with the biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly is set to be discussed in her cabinet on Monday.

“Spoke with Prime Minister May – indicated my concern that nothing should happen to put Good Friday agreement at risk, and [the] absence of nationalist voice in Westminster,” said the Taoiseach.

Kenny will soon be replaced by Ireland’s Taoiseach-elect Leo Varadkar, who won a Fine Gael internal party election earlier this month and is scheduled to be confirmed by the Irish parliament, the Dáil, next week.

Under the deal, the DUP is expected to pass the Queen’s Speech and budgets in exchange for Tory concessions.